ISPCC response to RTE Investigates programme:
Children in care: one year following a system in crisis
The report by RTE Investigates into the family law court system documenting the crisis in the care of this country’s most vulnerable children comes as no surprise to those of us working to safeguard children and young people in Ireland. There is no doubt that the system is utterly broken, despite the best efforts of those working within it.
It is soul-destroying to hear a teenage girl describe herself as an ‘Amazon parcel’, adding that “when you are being moved around from house to house, it felt like, we are kind of second choice”.
When a child in care feels like an Amazon parcel, it tells us that they’ve learned to see themselves as an inanimate object that needs to be processed and moved around, a burden on the system and not a real person.
At ISPCC, we understand the ongoing trauma faced by young people in care, who spend their lives being moved from place to place and dread their 18th birthday. This milestone is not a time of joy instead it signifies the removal of the State safety net, such as it exists for them, and an uncertain future ahead.
As a society, we should be appalled that some of our most vulnerable children and young people are treated like this and we must understand that the legacy of this trauma will have a defining impact on their lives.
We believe that the key is early intervention; the first step is to support families in their home. We support Tusla’s local integrated service model, a streamlined process of one file for one child, ensuring that no child gets lost in the system.
We call for greater after-care so that young people are properly supported once they turn 18, and greater in-house residential care provided by Tusla so that it is not necessary to use unregulated providers, irrespective of the budget constraints. Additional supports for foster carers are essential.
While there are examples of young people surviving the system and breaking the cycle of need, these are outliers.
We must increase the voice of the child in the courts and listen to the children and young people who need us.
We must provide proper help and support for children and young people placed in care.
Every child deserves a protected childhood.
As a society we simply have no excuse for failing to provide it.